and teachers yesterday.

The government agreed to higher wages for the most demanding jobs in health, education, and social care in addition to a general raise in wages. The agreement for the entire public sector, unofficially worth around EUR 300m, is to be initiated tomorrow. The deal, which follows four weeks of talks means that the strikes scheduled for early December will not happen. Talks with another group of public sector trade unions, led by Jakob Počivavšek, meanwhile took a turn for the worse yesterday. Its representatives walked out of the talks a mere hour after the start. Počivavšek said the government was unwilling to discuss the issue of tackling undermined wage ratios caused by potential exceptions, following government deals with certain trade unions; an issue he described as a key matter for them.